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Is it legal to serve like this?

I consider myself an intermediate player in Doubles. I have a problem with my serving style in Doubles. My opponent is not happy with the way I am serving. When I see my opponent ready I turn my head to the side a little bit to see if my partner is ready and I serve immediately. My opponent is not expecting that and he says I should wait for a moment before I serve like that. The other major thing is When I serve I sometimes move my racquet in the shape of an arc and at the end of the motion I hit the bird towards the side line. This goes in a single motion. I don't move the racquet back and forth on the serve. Is this Legal? One more thing I want to know is, Should my left hand, that holds the bird stay still when I start serving till I hit it? Please let me know the restrictions on how to serve and what is legal and what is not.

your opponent is correct, after you turn your head to see if you partner is ready you should wait a few seconds and see if your opponent is ready to receive the serve. what you are doing is a service fault and it could cost you the serve at a tournament. i don't understand what you mean an arc could you take pictures or a video clip. just make sure you are contacting the bird below your racquet hand and waist. yes your left hand should be still when holding the bird or you will be called on service fault. hope this helps

If your opponent was ready and it is part of your service routine, then it is legal.

Jens Eriksen checks his oppnent is ready, then looks down for 3/4 secs then serves and looks up. MAS pair lost an AE final because they were ready prior to JE looking down, then claimed they weren't ready when he served. JE won the point as it is up to the Receiver to be ready for the serve.

RE your hand holding the shuttle, I believe this is also legal, but I doubt you would get an advantage from moving this hand, since any movement is likely to reduce the quality of your serve.

As long as the reply of the service is with the racquet, the opponent is considered to be ready. So if he/she leaves the shuttle to fall on the court because he/she wasn't ready, you'll have to serve again - but if the shuttle even touches the racquet, the serve is considered legal.

As long as the reply of the service is with the racquet, the opponent is considered to be ready. So if he/she leaves the shuttle to fall on the court because he/she wasn't ready, you'll have to serve again - but if the shuttle even touches the racquet, the serve is considered legal.

This is incorrect. There is no such rule about touching the racquet.

It is the receivers responsibility to be ready for serve. Like I said in prev. post in AE Final LWW was ready, JE looked down and into his service routine. At some point during his service routine LWW claimed he was not ready, JE continued his service and LWW left it, but Umpire called it JE point at LWW should have been ready.

As a footnote it should be said that LWW had done this several times already and the umpire had warned him he must be ready prior.

technically theres nothing wrong with that at all, for your opponet if there not ready they should have some way of showing there not ready like racquet hand up and head down kinda thing which alot of players do but as long as there ready at the begining of your service routine then they cant all of a sudden not be ready half a second later.

i cant see anything wrong with the motion of you serve as long as it doesnt violate any of the srevice faults like one motion above certin body markers etc then there shouldnt be anything wrong with it. as for moving your left hand when serving should stay still since you literally hit the shuttle out of yoru hand and if your hand is moving while you serve it could make for an inconsistant serve and could cause some problems with the quality of your serve.

Chandra Wijaya's serve is a good example of misdirection, as he has no "pause" position to speak of; as soon as the shuttle reaches a hittable height it's away. If the receiver is ready before the whole service action commences then claiming they are NOT ready when the serve comes at them is ridiculous.

The same applies to your serve: if the receiver is ready before you turn to your partner then there is no possible way he can claim not to be ready from then onwards. His claim of "I wasn't expecting that" is laughable - he might as well claim a let for flick serves if they go over his head.

With regards to your second question, the phrase "continuous motion" ensures the serve is legal (as long as the rest of the laws regarding racket angle etc are satisfied). Indeed, this is necessary for deception - making all your serves look the same.

Your left hand can do anything it wants as long as the shuttle's base is hit first - there are no Service Laws governing the non racket hand. Again, twisting the shuttle during serve adds deception.

Types of service faults

Hello everyone,
Thanks for sharing your valuable suggestions on how to serve. I came across the types of service faults on Badminton World Federation. They are the ones who frame rules for all the Badminton Tournaments played. On page 8, 9, 10 we can see what service faults are and how they should be called, by the service Judge. Now, We can say that anything that doesn't come under these service faults is legal. What do you say?

Thanks Mark. Your reply looks like the best answer to my question. I came across what kind of faults are called on the serve and made a post with the link to the pdf file. According to the laws any thing is legal on the serve if the motion is a single forward one, shuttle is below the racquet arm and waist, racquet head pointing downwards at the time of contact with the shuttle, both feet touching the ground and both server and receiver are ready.

i would think that once you are ready to serve and your opponent is ready, you turning your head to look at your partner makes the opponent think that you're resetting your stance. it would definitely throw me off too if my opponent looked like he was ready to serve and then looked backwards. i would then relax and wait to get ready again.

It is the receivers responsibility to be ready for serve. Like I said in prev. post in AE Final LWW was ready, JE looked down and into his service routine. At some point during his service routine LWW claimed he was not ready, JE continued his service and LWW left it, but Umpire called it JE point at LWW should have been ready.

As a footnote it should be said that LWW had done this several times already and the umpire had warned him he must be ready prior.

There's a poster on 'service faults' at the courts where I play. This rule is mentioned while they're trying to explain that you should serve only after the opponent is ready...
It must be wrong, though, since as you say, a referee at an AE final will know the rules better than a badminton poster maker.

It is the receivers responsibility to be ready for serve. Like I said in prev. post in AE Final LWW was ready, JE looked down and into his service routine. At some point during his service routine LWW claimed he was not ready, JE continued his service and LWW left it, but Umpire called it JE point at LWW should have been ready.

As a footnote it should be said that LWW had done this several times already and the umpire had warned him he must be ready prior.

I think that is the main reason why the point was awarded to JE...but not all situations are similar. If i remember correctly if the receiver made no effort to return the service, and says that he isn't ready, a re-serve is usually called...

I have seen similar cases as the one you mentioned, and often it's because the server's serve routine takes a long time...maybe because he is intentionally delaying a tad longer than the 'norm'. Even then, the umpire might just call for re-serve

I consider myself an intermediate player in Doubles. I have a problem with my serving style in Doubles. My opponent is not happy with the way I am serving. When I see my opponent ready I turn my head to the side a little bit to see if my partner is ready and I serve immediately. My opponent is not expecting that and he says I should wait for a moment before I serve like that. The other major thing is When I serve I sometimes move my racquet in the shape of an arc and at the end of the motion I hit the bird towards the side line. This goes in a single motion. I don't move the racquet back and forth on the serve. Is this Legal? One more thing I want to know is, Should my left hand, that holds the bird stay still when I start serving till I hit it? Please let me know the restrictions on how to serve and what is legal and what is not.

Is it really that hard, to serve only when your opponents are 100% ready for your serve, without playing any tricks like super fast serve after looking away, or anything similar to that? Even if it is legal, do you really have to take advantage of the rules like that, instead of winning with better skill, technique, and etc...

You are not playing at the world championship, why take advantage of others when you are just playing for fun?

There's a poster on 'service faults' at the courts where I play. This rule is mentioned while they're trying to explain that you should serve only after the opponent is ready...
It must be wrong, though, since as you say, a referee at an AE final will know the rules better than a badminton poster maker.

As Dreambirdie says it was partially done as the receiver was persistently doing it. Obviously the first time a referee would let it go, and if you are at your local club and just serve while the opponent is walking back to receive you are going to get a few funny looks.

But once a receiver has indicated he is ready, he can then not says he isn't

As Dreambirdie says it was partially done as the receiver was persistently doing it. Obviously the first time a referee would let it go, and if you are at your local club and just serve while the opponent is walking back to receive you are going to get a few funny looks.

But once a receiver has indicated he is ready, he can then not says he isn't

sure he can if he thinks the server turned around to look at his partner and reset his stance. it throws the reciever off.

why try to do the "surprise serve" at all? are you really that worried about a net rush?

all i read about here is "gentlemanly this, sportsmanship that" and you say this is ok? there is no way i would try to win a point by distracting my opponent before serving.